Political Operative Tied to Paul Manafort Charged With Illegal Foreign Lobbying

Federal prosecutors on Friday morning charged Sam Patten, a former associate of ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, with illegally lobbying for a Ukrainian political party. Patten was charged by the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, and the Justice Department’s National Security Division, not by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But the case appears to represent the latest development in the broadening investigation by federal officials into foreign influence activities in United States.

The
criminal information filed against Patten indicates he has agreed to plead guilty to the charges in a hearing set for Friday morning in federal court in Washington. The filing says that between 2014 and 2018 Patten worked in Washington for the “Opposition Bloc,” the successor party to Ukraine’s Party of Regions, the pro-Russian party that Manafort once represented. Patten was paid more than $1 million in that period to lobby Congress and promoted the party, but failed to register with the Justice Department, the filing says. Patten previously
worked with Manafort in Ukraine.